[EMBARGO 5th August 2pm BST / 9am EST / 6am PST]
LONDON 6th August 2025: Ludocene is a brand new way to discover games, leaning on expert taste rather than artificial intelligence. It’s an app that matches you with games rather than people. Simply build your deck of favourites, then swipe your way to your perfect matching game.
Assets: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qJXW82A9EFY1pYpDxkTMoBL7kepf2aLv
Ludocene is a game discovery tool created by players for players. It’s launching to celebrate the UK’s National Play Day, which this year focuses on play spaces. Ludocene offers a novel way to find thousands of intriguing, fantastical, calming, boisterous or even quiet digital places to play.
Described by the Guardian as “Tinder for Games” as an “eye-catching and ever-increasing list of games for people of all ages and tastes” by the Financial Times and as “widening the culture of play” by Play England, Ludocene is set to shake up how people find their next game to play.
After funding on Kickstarter with over 1500 backers, it is now launching to the public one month early on National Play Day.
Our journey:
🤯We realised game discovery was broken.
🧪We made a prototype game-finder people loved.
🎯We Kickstartered it into reality with 1536 backers.
🥘We cooked and cooked and now it’s done.
🚀Now we launch for everyone on Weds 6th.
What Ludocene does:
- Presents a stream of Game cards
- You swipe to Love/Discard and build your deck.
- We suggest matching games for you to Pin.
- Add Expert cards for specific gaming taste.
“Ludocene shows how digital tools can support a culture of play by widening access, encouraging exploration and helping families find playful experiences in new ways. As our strategy sets out, we need inclusive infrastructure that upholds children’s right to play, increases visibility and acceptance, and creates more time and space, including digital, for play in everyday life.”- Eugene Minogue, Executive Director, Play England
Ludocene has been built to solve the challenge of finding what to play when over 1000 games launch every month. It does this not with AI or heavy algorithms but meticulously researched data built over the last five years:
- Free and ad-free to use, including all game cards.
- All human-researched data, rather than heavy algorithms or AI.
- Mobile and Desktop web-app.
- Save your runs and suggestions across both.
- Supported by a subscription tier (£3.99/month) that grants Discord access, more experts and monthly digest emails.
It’s the brainchild of three schoolfriends based in Devon. The homespun project not only stands out for what it delivers but for its truely grassroots ethos. It’s free from adverts and free to use via the web-app on a smartphone or browser version on computers.
For those who want to dig deeper down the game discovery rabbit hole, there’s a £3.99 monthly subscription that offers email digests of your suggestions, more Experts to choose from and the ability to create as many game-finding runs as you need.
“We’ve come this far with the enthusiastic support of our community, who have enabled us to put it in the hands of everyone for free. Our hope is that those who love it will support us to pay more experts and continue to develop the features and dataset.” - Andy Robertson, Founder of Ludocene.
About National Play Day
National Play Day (https://www.playday.org.uk/) focuses on play spaces for this year’s theme. Which highlights the vital importance of accessible, inclusive spaces where children and young people have opportunities to play freely, spending time, and connecting with friends – and feel valued as part of their community. Ludocene offers an innovative and playful way for people of any age to find space that matches their needs and desire to play.
Press Coverage
The Guardian “The Tinder of games is here… Ludocene caters to people who want a recommendation from an expert rather than a robot.”
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2025/feb/18/looking-for-something-new-to-spice-up-your-game-play-tinder-for-gamers-is-here
FT “Have you tried Ludocene, the ‘Tinder for gamers’?
The ace in Ludocene’s hand is the addition of paid experts – journalists, streamers, podcasters and so on – to help curate your matches. They also have cards you can add to your deck, based on their background and interests, and doing so will refine the recommendations you get even further.”
https://www.ft.com/content/1b3f1817-fcaa-4c00-b00a-c599eb49b5c1
BBC
“Ludocene has got people interested partly because it fills that space for people looking for more detailed, informed recommendations… Having an approach that helps you discover things that give you a better sense of whether you're going to like it allows you to invest your money, and for me, more importantly, your time in the things that you really enjoy," he says.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr52rey0ng8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkS3-rQ2vE
Polygon
“Video game that helps you find more video games… I would have never heard of this hidden gem if not for flicking through cards on Ludocene.”
https://www.polygon.com/news/526452/ludocene-video-game-recommendation-app
ABC
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/downloadthisshow/gaming-app-artificial-intelligence-deepfakes-astronauts/104970260
Kotaku
https://kotaku.com/game-recommendation-app-ludoscene-dating-deckbuilder-1851765948
“Could be the start of trying to move game discovery and recommendations back toward something more personal and authentic.”
Joan Ganz Coony Centre
https://joanganzcooneycenter.org/2025/03/03/disrupting-video-game-discovery-for-better-play-time/
NME
“Tinder for video games on the way… Ludocene and its team of video game experts will then recommend other games you might enjoy.”
https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/there-could-be-a-tinder-for-video-games-on-the-way-3841503
Total Playtime Podcast
https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-14-very-134871247
“It’s actually good! It recommended me a bunch of stuff, I bought the games, and I’m enjoying them. The system works! Genuinely surprised how good it is, very happy to say my scepticism was wrong. Thumbs up to what Ludocene is doing.”